The size and active ingredient content of a medicinal tablet are based on economic necessities and on epidemiological projections. In most instances, one can take a given number of medicinal tablets over a given period of time to receive the proper dosage of medication. There are, however, occasions when the proper dosage of a medication can be administered only by ingesting a fragment of a medicinal tablet. To get this fragment of a medicinal tablet of the correct size, one must accurately break a tablet into correctly sized parts. Breaking a tablet incorrectly may result in wastage, crumbling, or undesirable damage to a tablet coating. Because of these problems, there is a need for a device that will help a patient or physician split a tablet into parts.
A number of devices are designed to help one accurately split a tablet into parts. Some of these devices use a mounted blade in combination with a means for fixing the position of the tablet relative to the blade. Other devices use a ridge mounted on a base as a fulcrum to split a tablet into pans. The use of a ridge mounted on a base can be found in a number of devices including: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,815,802 of Stevens 1972, and 4,964,555 of Hnatuk 1990 where the ridge is mounted inside the lid of a tablet container, or U.S. Pat. No. 3,650,445 of Mechlin 1972 where the ridge is mounted to a modified base of a tablet container. The problem with these devices is that they are part of the medication container. If one must carry a small number of medicinal tablets, one must carry a bulky lid to split the medication when needed. Also, one cannot generally reuse a cap mounted tablet splitter. Medication containers come in many sizes. If one wishes to reuse the cap mounted tablet splitter, one must have a new medication container that has the same lip dimensions as the original container with the cap mounted tablet splitter.
It is the object of this invention to create a simple one piece device for splitting tablets which, unlike the above inventions, can be unobtrusively placed in a wallet, purse or pocket. That object is accomplished by attaching or stamping out a ridge on the surface of a card. Unlike prior inventions, one does not have to carry a tablet container to carry a tablet splitter. The tablet breaking card is compact; accordingly, one can store the card in a pocket, wallet, purse, or envelope. Additionally, the present invention consists of a single pan, whereas other tablet splitters consist of multiple parts that make the tablet splitter bulky, difficult to manufacture, and easy to break (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,826 of Leopoldi 1979).